Announcing Heartstorming News Blog
I am happy to announce that the last thirty Heartstorming Newsletters with Idea Stimulators have found a new home. Please visit and participate in the dialog.
September 09, 2007
I am happy to announce that the last thirty Heartstorming Newsletters with Idea Stimulators have found a new home. Please visit and participate in the dialog.
March 26, 2007
Telephone Number Change
Please note that my telephone number has changed to:
610-438-5707
All other information remains the same.
Thank you.
March 03, 2007
Inside Storie - Part Two
Please see the next entry for
photographs of shot desks.
Inside Stories - Part Two
The second in a series of articles about storytelling
(Link to Part One)
photographs of shot desks.
Inside Stories - Part Two
The second in a series of articles about storytelling
(Link to Part One)
Spontaneous oral storytelling exercises my creative mind. And when I became a father, I couldn't wait to tell stories to my children before they went to bed. Those stories were pure improvisations. My children loved them because they came from our every day experiences. Others were fantasies where the children were forced to suspend disbelief and to accept the world as I presented it. The stories were often interactive and participatory. I remember inventing a fantasy world without television which prompted my daughters to reinvent radio drama as a storytelling device. Neither child had ever heard a radio drama. Children love radio drama because it invites them to complete the stories in their mind's eyes.
What if storytellers presented only the basic facts? A plot for a movie might read something like this:
Steve worked at the same advertising agency for twenty-four years. He is presently semi-retired and writing a play.
It is not likely the movie would ever get made. There's just not enough information to get us interested. We don't care about Steve because his character was never developed. We don't have any information about what he did at the agency or what kept him in the same job for twenty-four years. This story is boring. What if we turned the facts into a story?
Steve's story is written in the present tense which is the preferred format for a scenario. Each action occurs in the present and builds anticipation. Spontaneous oral storytelling often follows this format. It is a natural way to build an improvisation.
Steve resembles Albert Einstein. His disheveled white hair and droopy mustache calls attention to his advancing age in this young person's fickle advertising agency world. He does not know how to tell his colleagues he has been fired after a career making award winning advertisements. Steve was once the boss - a capo di capo of copy oriented conceptual creative directors. Steve was the one who did the firing. He is loyal to the agency and expects the agency to return the favor after twenty-four years. Betrayed, it suddenly hits him that he is just one year short of being vested in the profit sharing fund which would have left him a rich man for the rest of his life. Now he will have to struggle. Later, at the local gin mill, he sips on his seven dollar martini afraid to tell his wife. He makes her his excuse for suffering the daily abuses his bosses threw at him. Now they are gone. They sold the agency out from under him. Steve is bitter. It's ten PM. Steve has not eaten. He is ordering his fifth martini and slurring his words. He wonders what he will do tomorrow. Will he even bother to clean out his desk? He has lost any last vestige of self esteem. Steve enters into a conversation with a stranger at the other end of the bar. Steve tells the mildly interested and very polite gentleman about his dreams, he would have, could have, should have been a playwright, if it weren't for his wife who demanded money - lots of it. Later Steve pulls a cardboard box from the top shelf of a closet, he finds an unfinished manuscript, sets up his typewriter, and begins to work. The noise disturbs his wife, who insists on knowing what Steve's doing. He lies. Etc.
We are all improvisers. Richard Lederer points out in The Miracle of Language, "The most common form of improvisation is ordinary speech. As we, talk or listen, we draw on a set of bricks (vocabulary) and rules for combining them (grammar)." Think of each of your conversations as a form of word jazz. A conversation between two people is like the spontaneous dialogue between two musicians. The activity of instantaneous creation is as ordinary to us as breathing."
Lederer's computer studies have shown that it would take ten trillion years -- two thousand times the estimated age of the earth - to utter all of the possible sentences that use exactly twenty words. He wrote, "Therefore, it is unlikely that any twenty-word sentence an individual speaks has ever been spoken previously. The same conclusion holds true, of course, for sentences of greater length and for most shorter sentences. That is why almost every sentence in every book magazine, and newspaper that has been written, is expressed, or will be expressed is in its exact form for the first time. Every story you tell is likely to be told for the first time."
Even stories about common occurrences are unique. In our lifetime we collect sensory experiences about people, places, animals, landscapes, events large and small. We store factual and reactive data in our subconscious. None of us sees the same events in the same way. Couple that with the infinite ways of expressing ourselves and Richard Lederer's calculations are most believable.
February 07, 2007
Chaos - Shooting Your Desk
I d e a S t i m u l a t o r s
Chaos
In a recent Heartstorming Newsletter now published with Weekly Idea Stimulators
I included some thoughts on Creativity and Chaos.
I invited people to
SHOOT THEIR DESK!
How Does Your Desk Reveal Your Personality?
Read this article first.
That's right. As is. No cleaning up.
Chaotic or Orderly or Some Place in Between.
Send me a low res JPEG and I will place it on this blog.
Chris Bonney Desk
Copyright 2007 Chris Bonney
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbonney/
Emmanuel Faure's Desk
www.emmanuelfaure.com
Copyright 2007 Emmanuel Faure
Steve Widoff's Office
www.widoffphoto.com
Copyright 2007 Steve Widoff
December 28, 2006
Guidelines to Idea Stimulators
Thousands of people having been receiving my Free Weekly Idea Stimulators. Some examples are here at this blog. The only way to receive them after today is by request.
Be Positive - Suspend disbelief and keep a positive attitude. This world is filled with enough nay-saying.
Limit Judgment - Judging your ideas as you are producing them is like driving the car with the brake and accelerator on at the same time. While you are producing ideas, the pedal should be to the metal. The time to put on the brakes is when you are choosing which ideas to produce. Beware of inner voices of judgment. How many times have you had a good idea you talked you out of?
Detach from an Outcome - I recommend that you detach from a specific outcome when you creating new work. This means that when an idea comes up which produces the Eureka! response, execute the idea because your heart tells you to do it. Do not measure ideas by whether they will appeal to your stock agency, your portfolio, art buyers, picture editors, or... The only criteria ought to be that you love the idea enough to do what ever it takes to bring it into being.
Hitchhiking - Allow others to add to your idea. Your idea may stimulate something in a collaborator. Do not have so much pride in your idea that you think you own it. Give it away. There is an endless supply of ideas in the universe. As you can see by my entries, each concept may generate dozens of additional concepts. No two creators would interpret them the same way. And the purpose of this program is to stimulate you to produce your own concepts. And hitchhike on your own ideas by going back to your idea journal and reviewing and harvesting. One idea will often produce others related or not.
Quantity - Go for quantity. The more ideas the better. You have a better chance of coming up with an innovation, if there are dozens of ideas rather than just a few. Studies show that the first idea is rarely the best. The first half of ideas produced in a prolonged period of time were compared with those of the second half. The later contained 78% more good ideas. Imagine there are two sealed paper bags. One has one hundred ideas. The other has ten. Each bag costs $5.00 and you may only choose one. Chances are you would pick the bag with a hundred ideas because there is a better chance of finding a stimulating idea.
Write it Down - Write everything down as you are processing or you will forget it. Even the best human brain can not hold more than seven variables at a time. I like to keep a large pad with juicy markers handy. It helps me think bigger. When you have an idea write it down quickly. Trying to hold onto a thought may prevent you from coming up with your next idea. It contributes to creative block. Keep an idea journal.
Limit Editorializing - Many of us love our ideas so much that we feel a need to explain them over and over to ourselves and perhaps others. Don't waste time and space explaining your ideas until you have chosen one to produce.
Incubate - This means sleep on it. When you begin ideating you may come up with hundreds of ideas. They will come to you when you least expect it like when you are driving and taking a shower or that moment of somnolence just before you fall asleep. Keep your journal at the side of your bed so you may record those moments or you will forget them. Include your dreams in this journal.
Have Fun - Creating should be a celebratory experience. Be playful.
Be Conscious Of Your Body - Problem solving is an activity that originates in the brain. Heartstorming comes from the body. We feel in our bodies not our heads. Use your body to check-in: to focus on your feelings. For example, I often have a burning sensation in my throat when I am feeling fear. It reminds me that I am not saying something that represents my truth.
Guidelines for Using Idea Stimulators
Be Positive - Suspend disbelief and keep a positive attitude. This world is filled with enough nay-saying.
Limit Judgment - Judging your ideas as you are producing them is like driving the car with the brake and accelerator on at the same time. While you are producing ideas, the pedal should be to the metal. The time to put on the brakes is when you are choosing which ideas to produce. Beware of inner voices of judgment. How many times have you had a good idea you talked you out of?
Detach from an Outcome - I recommend that you detach from a specific outcome when you creating new work. This means that when an idea comes up which produces the Eureka! response, execute the idea because your heart tells you to do it. Do not measure ideas by whether they will appeal to your stock agency, your portfolio, art buyers, picture editors, or... The only criteria ought to be that you love the idea enough to do what ever it takes to bring it into being.
Hitchhiking - Allow others to add to your idea. Your idea may stimulate something in a collaborator. Do not have so much pride in your idea that you think you own it. Give it away. There is an endless supply of ideas in the universe. As you can see by my entries, each concept may generate dozens of additional concepts. No two creators would interpret them the same way. And the purpose of this program is to stimulate you to produce your own concepts. And hitchhike on your own ideas by going back to your idea journal and reviewing and harvesting. One idea will often produce others related or not.
Quantity - Go for quantity. The more ideas the better. You have a better chance of coming up with an innovation, if there are dozens of ideas rather than just a few. Studies show that the first idea is rarely the best. The first half of ideas produced in a prolonged period of time were compared with those of the second half. The later contained 78% more good ideas. Imagine there are two sealed paper bags. One has one hundred ideas. The other has ten. Each bag costs $5.00 and you may only choose one. Chances are you would pick the bag with a hundred ideas because there is a better chance of finding a stimulating idea.
Write it Down - Write everything down as you are processing or you will forget it. Even the best human brain can not hold more than seven variables at a time. I like to keep a large pad with juicy markers handy. It helps me think bigger. When you have an idea write it down quickly. Trying to hold onto a thought may prevent you from coming up with your next idea. It contributes to creative block. Keep an idea journal.
Limit Editorializing - Many of us love our ideas so much that we feel a need to explain them over and over to ourselves and perhaps others. Don't waste time and space explaining your ideas until you have chosen one to produce.
Incubate - This means sleep on it. When you begin ideating you may come up with hundreds of ideas. They will come to you when you least expect it like when you are driving and taking a shower or that moment of somnolence just before you fall asleep. Keep your journal at the side of your bed so you may record those moments or you will forget them. Include your dreams in this journal.
Have Fun - Creating should be a celebratory experience. Be playful.
Be Conscious Of Your Body - Problem solving is an activity that originates in the brain. Heartstorming comes from the body. We feel in our bodies not our heads. Use your body to check-in: to focus on your feelings. For example, I often have a burning sensation in my throat when I am feeling fear. It reminds me that I am not saying something that represents my truth.
October 19, 2006
Ways to Get Attention
Ways to Get Attention
Idea Stimulator #13
Idea Stimulator #13
I just read that someone surveyed a group of art directors and buyers who advised photographers seeking their attention to send postcards -- and to send them without envelopes or it will make them angry. It occurred to me that these people do not believe in advertising. If they did, they would be impressed with how promoters get their attention. While it may be easier to send a postcard of your work from time-to-time or even an e-mail with your latest picture, the likelihood is that it will not be looked at and remembered. Advertising people know that after identifying a market, they need to get people's attention with a message that appeals to their needs and desires. If you are using e-mail, your message ought to provide information in some form. Perhaps a newsletter containing information that your audience wants. Or perhaps your promotion may entertain. However you promote, it has to relate and reinforce the ways that you see. A gimmick for a gimmick's sake will not work. Your promotion should have some kind of call for action or a promise or... It should complete the Oh Yeah Response:
Oh Yeah! I love this work. It stirs my soup. I will remember the photographer's name and images. I understand the ways this photographer sees. I will save it. And I will keep this photographer in mind for the next opportunity to work together.
October 16, 2006
Inside Stories - Part One
Inside Stories - Part One
This is the first in a five part series of
articles on storytelling
By now you probably realize how much I love to tell and listen to stories. It comes from inventing ways to be noticed in a household where four generations attempted to grow up at the same time. Our two family home was the headquarters for hungry friends, neighbors and relatives who visited every Sunday in swarms. There were bottomless bottles of bourbon, scotch and rye whiskey. There was lamb barley soup, brisket, lumpy mashed potatoes with brown gravy, crusty breads from Brooklyn, homemade cole slaw, vegetables, salad, and Jell-O molds, followed by triple layer all chocolate cake, cake resembling a twelve inch cheese Danish, ice cream, coffee, tea, and chocolate egg creams for the children made with Fox's U-Bet chocolate syrup, milk, and seltzer from a syphon bottle. In this house, food was love. But mostly, I remember the noise. What started out as a drone rose to shouts, shrieks and bellows as family and guests all spoke at the same time.
Great Uncles and Aunts told classic family stories embellished and distorted beyond reality. In the retelling stories grew to mythic proportions and we believed them. There was the story about Uncle Harry who worked for my Great Grandfatheat a ship outfitting store at the turn of the last century near South Street in New York. No one ever explained why the sailors thought Harry was a doctor, but they did. And when a merchant marine came to the store drunk and presented Harry with a hangnail, my uncle cut off the sailor's finger. Uncle Leonard, one of my great heroes, was raised in New York City. He moved to Washington D.C. just before World War II and became a taxi driver and tour guide.
Lenny-the-Hack had a devoted following of people who came back year after year for his informative tours. When I discovered Lenny made the whole thing up I was appalled and elated - appalled because of his lack of integrity and elated because of his creativity. I was the one who caught him. One spring when I was about eight years old, I visited Lenny at the nation's capital and accompanied him on a bus tour. He was the guide.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he sang in a convincing southern accent in front of the Washington Monument. "Count up fourteen stones and two over. That stone was carved by hand in the great state of Wisconsin by a man named Horowitz It weighs exactly sixteen thousand four hundred eighty-nine and three quarters pounds."
I went back again when I was nine. Lenny had his customers count up fourteen stones and two over. This time the stone was brought from the great state of Montana and was carved by a man named Schwartz.
Those may have been the good old days. But, nothing so grand ever happened around me when I was a boy. So, I reinvented my family. Dad ran a foundry making shells for the war effort during World War II. On the side, he sold life insurance. The man worked very hard to support four generations. I loved my father and I know he loved me. however, it wasn't enough for this creative adventurer. I turned my father into a gangster and a crusader for human rights. First, I recreated him as a journalist whose dreams were broken when textile unionists destroyed his printing presses and his heart after he ran a union busting editorial. Later, I fantasized Dad as the leader of a gang of Robin Hood thieves who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. I believed my lies were far more interesting than the truth. I told my tales with great conviction and often defended them against my friends who recognized my embellishments. On the other hand, they often requested me to tell them stories and I was rather popular. As an adult, I realized the lies kept me from really knowing a great man. He was a major influence in my life and a colorful joke teller himself.
There is solace in the thought that lying is instinctive rather than learned. For children, there is only the vaguest dividing line between true and false reporting. Truth is a moral concept which needs to be taught. George Steiner said, '...alternity is the greatest of man's tools, by far. With this stick, he has reached out of the cage of instinct to touch the boundaries of the universe and time." Creating alternative worlds can help me cope with and understand reality. Someone once claimed that storytelling is the lie which tells the truth.
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You will also be eligible for one free hour of coaching
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For More About my Coaching Services,
Teleconferences & Testimonials
For my Article on How to Come up With an Infinite
Number of Story Concepts
October 10, 2006
Enlightenment
Enlightenment
Here is a dialog I have been part of numerous times -- slightly exaggerated for effect:
Q. Who Are You? What Makes You Different?
A. It's My Lighting, Dude. My Lighting!
Q. 9 out of 10 People Tell Me It's Their Lighting. What About Your Lighting Defines Your Work?
A. It Brings Out Emotions, Man.
Q. And What is It About the Your Lighting That Brings Out Emotions, That Makes You Different? What Do You Mean by Light?
Without light, you could not make a photograph. In fact, without light we could not see. Life could not exist. What is the most frightening experience you have ever had of darkness. For me, it was being alone in a forest at night. The night was moonless. Stars were hidden behind a dense blue-black fabric of clouds. I was eleven. I was lost. I did not know which direction to travel. I fell and skinned both of my knees. There were no light rays to bounce back at my eyes. Without light we can not see. So let there be light!:
In Natural History of the Senses, author Diane Ackerman writes an essay on light:
...Even people who have been blind since birth are greatly affected by light because although we need light to see, light also influences s in other ways. If affects out moods, it rallies our hormones, it triggers our circadian rhythms. During the season of darkness in northern latitudes, the suicide rate soars, insanity looms in many households, and alcoholism becomes rampant...
Read this book if you can find a copy on Amazon or E-Bay. It is out of print and published by Vintage in 1991.
October 09, 2006
Annie Liebovitz
A Photographer's Life 1990 - 2005
Annie Liebovitz
The photographs, published earlier this month by Random House in a book titled A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005, will be shown at the Brooklyn Museum in an exhibition opening Oct. 20. For those of you in town for Photo Plus, make some time to see this show. There will be photographs of her family and personal history including her fifteen years with the great photography essayist and novelist Susan Sontag. There will be a collection of some of her best images from Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. Read Janny Scott's feature in the October 6th edition of the New York Times.
In the days after the death of Susan Sontag in December 2004, Annie Leibovitz began searching for photographs for a small book to be given out at the memorial service. She started with other people’s photographs of Ms. Sontag, then turned to her own, taken during the 15 years they spent together. That exercise turned into what she has described as an archeological dig: an unearthing and sifting of a decade and a half of work, love, family life, illness, deaths and births, adding up to “my most important work,” she said in an interview this week. “It’s the most intimate, it tells the best story, and I care about it.”
Janny Scott, NYTimes, October 6, 2006
“I don’t have two lives,” Annie Leibovitz writes in the Introduction to this collection of her work from 1990—2005. “This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.” To read reviews and to order a discounted copy of A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 visit Amazon.com.
October 04, 2006
Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman
In the NY Times (October 4, 2006) , author/illustrator/humorist Maira Kalman touched my heart.
This work should be shared. If you like it, go back and look at her previous columns. Then take a look at her history on her website.
In today's story, and she is a remarkable storyteller, she searches for the answer to the question, "Who am I?" At one point she begins to describe herself through her collections. Her illustrations are excellent. And her subjects include everyday objects (sort of), people she has known, historical figures including Abraham Lincoln, Goethe and even her father-in-law.
Maira was the wife of the late great designer Tibor Kalman.
Make sure you see her New Yorker covers especially this collaboration with Rick Meyerowitz called New Yorkistan.
July 17, 2006
Star of Your Own Soap Opera
Idea Stimulator #12
You Are the Star of Your Own Soap Opera
You Are the Star of Your Own Soap Opera
The term soap opera originated from daytime radio when these serial dramas which were largely aimed at housewives. Many of the products sold during these commercials were laundry and cleaning items, and included a jingle praising the product. This specific type of radio drama became associated with particular commercials, and thus gave rise to the term soap opera. Generally soap operas were melodramatic stories that were sponsored by soap products.
The soap opera form originated on U.S. radio in the 1930s, and expanded into television starting in the 1940s. Radio soap operas began in Chicago in 1930 when WGN broadcast the fifteen minute drama Painted Dreams, about the trials of an Irish-American widow and her daughter. By the start of World War II there were dozens of popular soap operas. The first concerted effort to air continuing drama on television occurred in 1946 on the DuMont television series Faraway Hill. (Wikipedia)
Louise Lasser as Mary Hartman
July 11, 2006
Hey Tony!
Hey Tony!
This is my story of how I became an art director and developed an adrenaline addiction. Five years out of college, I decided to leave a career as a high school art teacher and to make some money. I had a child on the way, lived in New York City, and could no longer support my family on a teacher's salary. I remembered counseling my students against the commercial arts believing it was a sell out. However I was desperate. My portfolio consisted of an art student's frayed zippered bag, some wrinkled figure drawings, and a #10 envelope containing thirty over or underexposed dusty scratched slides of my paintings. No one taught me about presentation in art school. I dragged this portfolio all over town and talked my way into interviews with creative directors and personnel managers at advertising agencies. They thought I was charming, but they had a large pool of well-trained young graphic designers to choose from.
There was an ad in The New York Times classifieds for an Assistant Advertising Manager at a company called Lightolier. I called. Lightolier was located in Jersey City. I lived in New York. There was no way I was going to reverse commute. My concerned wife thought it would be a good idea to get the experience of a genuine interview. I went reluctantly via buses and trains. Lightolier was located in a huge brick factory building of Civil War vintage. It was not my idea of glamour and I knew somewhere in my bones that I would sabotage this interview.
July 10, 2006
The Definitive Pez Collection
Idea Stimulator # 11
The Definitive Pez Collection
The Definitive Pez Collection
When my wife and I moved to Easton PA in 2001, we came across a new museum being built just a few blocks from our loft. The founder, owner, and curator Tim Coyle turned out to own the loft below ours.
In 1927, Austrian Edward Haas came up with a new peppermint candy.The word Pez comes from the German word for peppermint (pfefferminz). It was an adult breath mint that he decided to market as an alternative for smoking. From the word pfefferminz they took the first, middle and last letter and came up with the word Pez. Pez was carried around in pocket tins. Then in 1948 they came out with the "easy, hygenic dispenser" that we all recognize now to be a standard. In 1952 Pez was introduced in the United States. Package designers placed heads on the dispensers and marketed the newly positioned Pez to children...
About 1,500 Pez dispensers, all nestled in creative landscapes, fill the Easton Museum Of Pez Dispensers. Disney Pez sit in a 10-foot-high castle. Halloween-themed Pez are displayed in a haunted house. Psychedelic Pez are set beside a real Volkswagen Beetle that appears to be crashing through the wall. There are NFL Pez and superheroes, Star Wars and Charlie Brown, Elton John and Santa Claus. There is also a "Where in the World Is Waldo" game set up on a wall display containing more than 500 dispensers.This got me thinking about how the candy bars of my childhood have evolved; package design, product extensions, flavors, ingrediants, logos, advertising, &c. Of course, some of my favorite candies disappeared. Take a trip back to your childhood and make a list of the candies that you remember. Go to a supermarket and see if that product is still made. Can you recognize it? What’s different? How does this stimulate your imagination.
My Childhood Favorites
Bazzini Nuts
Baby Ruth
3 Musketeers
Bit O' Honey
Good & Plenty
Oh Henry!
Peanut Chews
Jujubes
Jujyfruit
Necco Wafers
Planter’s Peanut Bar
Snickers
Bonomo Turkish Taffy
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Bazzini Nuts
Baby Ruth
3 Musketeers
Bit O' Honey
Good & Plenty
Oh Henry!
Peanut Chews
Jujubes
Jujyfruit
Necco Wafers
Planter’s Peanut Bar
Snickers
Bonomo Turkish Taffy
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
July 08, 2006
Snickers and Walnettos
Idea Stimulator # 10
Snickers and Walnettos
Snickers and Walnettos
When I was an elementary school student my grandmother prepared a brown bag lunch each day sparing me from the cafeteria. Lunches included a healthy sandwich (roast beef, meatloaf, egg salad), a fun sandwich (peanut butter or cream cheese and jelly), a slice of homemade chocolate cake, a piece of fruit, and enough money for an ice cream and container of milk. I was not small. However if I knew someone had it, I would often trade my entire lunch for a Snickers Bar.
Snickers
The Best-Selling Candy Bar of All Time
The Best-Selling Candy Bar of All Time
May 03, 2006
Spanners
Spanners
The Characteristics and Attributes of Artists
Whose Careers Span Fifty Years or More
I recently introduced a discussion in my teleconferences about artists whose careers have flourished for long periods of time. We considered the careers of Picasso, Matisse, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Norman Mailer, Paul McCartney, and others. In a couple of months Paul McCartney will be – you guessed it – 64 years old. And what a career he has had. I believe he is as vital today – maybe even more so – than he was in his time as a Beatle. He wrote his first song in 1956; fifty years ago.
I call these people Spanners. Some questions:
What are the attributes and characteristics (A's and C's) present in Spanners? How do you measure up? Few have all the A's and C's. Many of us have a little of each. Some may be worthwhile to focus on and to improve. Others may just be considered genetic.
Go through the list. (see the full article for the list) Define the terms for yourself. What is talent? It is defined as a natural apptitude. However, if you have it, are you using it fully? If you do not use it, will you lose it?
Are you inspired and do you inspire others? When was the last time you surprised yourself while creating? Do you love your dream strongly enough to apply the energy required to bring it into being -- no matter what?
Obsession is a common attribute of Spanners. Matisse was so obsessed by his calling to make art that he told Amelie when he proposed that his love for his art will always come before everything else. And that is the way he lived his long and productive life. I just finished reading an insightful and extremely informative two volume biography of Matisse. Read it. Matisse had most of the A's and C's most of the time. As in most of us, A's and C's oscillate: they wax and wane.
Richard Avedon's career spanned 60 years.
Pablo Picasso's career spanned 77 years.
Henri Matisse's career spanned 65 years.
Irving Penn's career spans 63 years and he is still at it.
Norman Mailer's career spans about 60 years - still going strong.
Pablo Picasso's career spanned 77 years.
Henri Matisse's career spanned 65 years.
Irving Penn's career spans 63 years and he is still at it.
Norman Mailer's career spans about 60 years - still going strong.
I call these people Spanners. Some questions:
What are the attributes and characteristics (A's and C's) present in Spanners? How do you measure up? Few have all the A's and C's. Many of us have a little of each. Some may be worthwhile to focus on and to improve. Others may just be considered genetic.
Go through the list. (see the full article for the list) Define the terms for yourself. What is talent? It is defined as a natural apptitude. However, if you have it, are you using it fully? If you do not use it, will you lose it?
Are you inspired and do you inspire others? When was the last time you surprised yourself while creating? Do you love your dream strongly enough to apply the energy required to bring it into being -- no matter what?
Obsession is a common attribute of Spanners. Matisse was so obsessed by his calling to make art that he told Amelie when he proposed that his love for his art will always come before everything else. And that is the way he lived his long and productive life. I just finished reading an insightful and extremely informative two volume biography of Matisse. Read it. Matisse had most of the A's and C's most of the time. As in most of us, A's and C's oscillate: they wax and wane.
A Life of Henri Matisse
Hilary Spurling
Volume One: The Unknown Matisse 1869-1908
Volume Two: Matisse The Master 1909-1954
(Alfred Knopf)
Henri Matisse
Self-Portrait in a Striped T-Shirt.
1906.
Oil on canvas.
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
I have provided a matrix to help you ask yourself questions like these. You will see the attributes and characteristics which we identified on the left side of the matrix. If there are A's and C's not represented, add them. There are three columns immediately to the right. Using a scale of 1 – 10, how would you rate yourself right now. Be fiercely honest. The next column marked with an F is for feasibility. Using a scale of 1 -- 10 and considering everything you know and believe about yourself, how feasible would it be to raise your score. And finally, the third column marked with an E is for effectiveness. How effective would it be for you to focus and put energy into raising each A and C?Hilary Spurling
Volume One: The Unknown Matisse 1869-1908
Volume Two: Matisse The Master 1909-1954
(Alfred Knopf)
Henri Matisse
Self-Portrait in a Striped T-Shirt.
1906.
Oil on canvas.
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
From the dust jacket: ..."If my story were ever to be written down truthfully from start to finish, it would amaze everyone." ...With unprecedented and unrestricted access to his voluminous family correspondence, and other new material in private archives, Hilary Spurling documents a lifetime of desperation and self-doubt exacerbated by Matisse'sattempts to counteract the violence and desperation of the twentieth century in paintings that now seem effortlessly serene, radiant and stable.
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May 01, 2006
Why do you Exist? - Trap Door Spider Society
Why Do You Exist?
The Night Issac Asimov made me Cry
I often tell this story at the beginning of my talks. Some listeners have asked me write it down. Here it is:
Coke bottle bottom eyeglasses coupled with a gray whispy Fu Manchu beard accented Lester del Rey’s persona. He was wearing Crayola burnt sienna Haband ban rolled polyester slacks and a powder blue permanent press leisure suit jacket. Around his neck was a bolo tie which fastened with a fixture that lit up mysteriously like a window to the cosmos. This package suggested a contemporary version of Tolkien’s wizard Gandolf. When Lester spoke, he blustered.
Lester had been appointed fantasy editor of del Rey Books, a division of Ballantine Books which was a division of Random House, to compliment his wife Judy-Lynn Benjamin del Rey. Judy-Lynn founded the del Rey imprint and was a highly respected science fiction editor turning obscure authors into giants in spite of the fact that she was a little person. It was Judy-Lynn who presented Lester with a box of freshly printed business cards which read, Lester del Rey, Expert. And he was. I was the new Art Director. It was the mid-seventies.
Judy-Lynn and Lester Del Rey
C. 1974
Around the time I was introduced to the Trap Door Spiders
Lester intimidated guests regularly on one of the first all night radio talk shows hosted by Long John Nebel and his wife Candy Jones during the fifties. I would listen on my pocket sized red transistor radio with a tiny ear piece when I should have been doing my algebra homework. Lester was a science fiction writer for more years than I was alive. His first short story was published in Astounding Science Fiction in the mid-thirties. He was a frequent contributor during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. I remember seeing the credits scroll by on Captain Video, the first of television's space odysseys in 1949. Lester del Rey was the science advisor.
A quarter century later, I stood before this great man in awe holding his business card and accepting an invitation to a meeting of the Trap Door Spider’s Society which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers. Del Rey himself was the model for the Emmanuel Rubin character. Lester explained that the Spiders were a men’s eating and drinking club made up of thirteen old friends. A significant number, I thought. The Spiders were formed in response to one of his friends being henpecked. The men invented the club to get that man out of the house once a month. I later discovered that the female Trap Door Spider, when it enters its burrow pulls the hatch shut behind it. Meetings were hosted in rotation. The host would select the restaurant, wine, and menu. He also had the privilege of inviting one or two guests whom he thought might be interesting to his colleagues. I was flattered and accepted.
During the next three weeks, while I waited for the event, Lester and Judy Lynn initiated me into a wonderful world of science fiction and fantasy -- a world I abandoned when I was thirteen. Later we would collaborate on hundreds of science fiction paperback covers and the number one world’s best-selling calendar based upon the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and illustrated by Tim and Greg Hildebrandt.
My taxi pulled up in front of an unsuspecting Spanish restaurant on West Seventy-Second Street. A seemingly obsequious uniformed doorman fawned over other guests while judging me for my long hair, beard, bandanna, black T-shirt, love beads, and safari jacket - the uniform of the art director. A more considerate Maitre D’ escorted me to a private dining room lit by a Marie Theresa chandelier. Waiters carried trays of hors d’oervres and drinks served in Baccarat crystal. Del Rey, still dressed in stretch knit, enthusiastically introduced me to the other spiders. “Ian Summers. Issac Asimov. Ian Summers. L. Sprague Ducamp. Ian Summers. Martin Gardner.” Ian Summers met eight other luminaries consisting of more writers, editors and the Director of the Hayden Planetarium. I took a drink. Lester introduced me to another guest. “Ian Summers. Jim Randi. The Amazing Randi.” I took another drink. I met Truman Capote the day before. I met Gore Vidal that very afternoon. But these men were heroes from my childhood. Terror welled up while I wondered what Lester thought might be interesting about me to this august assembly of luminaries.
Upon conclusion of dessert the waiter gracefully removed the china, poured vintage brandy, and lit thirteen black candles now dancing in sterling silver candelabra. The formal proceedings commenced. Amazing and I were toasted. Then Issac Asimov explained it was a Spider’s tradition to interrogate their guests. The great man leaned across the table. Bushy mutton chops illuminated by candle light framed him in his own aura. I wanted to run. I tried to make myself small, a skill developed in junior high school. Surely he would start with Jim Randi. Asimov locked eyes and boomed, “Ian Summers. Why do you exist?”
I took a gulp of sipping brandy. I was silent. I had not given the question a moment's thought in my first thirty-five years. I filibustered for over thirty minutes fearing another question. I felt unworthy to be in the company of such great men. I remember thinking, “Oh my God. Issac Asimov knows my name.” I judged myself for not having the right answers -- for not being good enough. I vaguely remember presenting my credentials, my accomplishments, my family and work histories. And then Asimov said. "Thank you Ian." I worked hard to hold back tears.
That was not the case in the taxicab. On the ride home I sobbed like a baby. I realized I had spent most of my life as a human doing; not a human being. I did not know the difference. I tried to do exactly what well-meaning caretakers expected. I guessed at what they wanted. I guessed at what normal was and rebelled. I became the son I thought my parents wanted. I failed at becoming the good husband without knowing what that meant. I achieved other people's goals and consequently I was empty. I was fear based. I would do anything to be seen. I had no idea why I existed or who I was. It took another decade to feel comfortable in my skin.
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April 28, 2006
Things That Melt
Idea Stimulator # 9
Things That Melt
Things That Melt
Tuna melts, ice cream, ice sculpture, glaciers, ice bergs, grilled cheese sandwiches, soap, nuclear energy plants, ice cubes, your heart (falling in love), soles of your shoes too close to a fireplace, heroin on a spoon, snow, frost on a windshield, solder, what else? How many foods can you think of associated with melting? Welsh Rarebit, Cheez-Whiz, Pizza, etc. I see a colorful abandoned double stick ice pop melting on the dashboard of a car. I see a caterer's ice sculpture melting on the buffet table after everyone has gone home.
Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.
Robert Frost
Robert Frost
March 28, 2006
Keith Haring
Keith Haring
The Journey of the Radiant Baby
During the eighties, I traveled to my office at The Creative Black Book by subway when it was just as easy to walk, because I wanted to see the Keith Haring's chalk drawings on black paper in spaces where advertising posters were removed. Haring would sneak into the subway stations in the middle of the night to leave his graffiti-like messages. These images were often signed with an iconic symbol or tag later called The Radiant Baby. He was arrested frequently.
Haring was able to look at the world and to make political statements with a sense of humor and whimsey. I loved his direct flowing lines often drawn with single brush strokes or pieces of chalk. At times his images dealt with violence. Others were erotic.
I would see him in the East Village at The Mud Club or Club 57 in the 1980's often with an entourage of friends and hanger's on. The East Village dance club scene was documented by photographer Tseng Kwong Chi. His career lasted for a decade of abundance before he was stricken with an AIDS related disease. He died in 1990 at age 32.
I was able to see three retrospectives of his work over the years. One at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1993, again at SFMOMA in 1998, and last weekend in Reading PA. The Reading Public Museum mounted a superb installation that captured the energy of this radiant artist. There were original pages from a book entitled Red and Blue suspended from the ceiling floating in front of vintage Japanese prints making a connection I had never seen before. Red and Blue was created as a collaboration with artist Kenny Scharf's daughter Zeno when she was a little girl. Haring was great with children and often invited them to play. He invited collaboration in his murals. A 550 feet by 8 feet mural in Chicago was painted by Haring in one day. Dozens of students were invited to fill in the forms he created with dancing lines. BTW the entire mural was done as a spontaneous work without preliminary drawings or plans. Parts of the mural are on exhibition in Reading.
Another fascinating aspect of Haring's work was his interest in diverse markets for his work.
In April 1986, Haring opened the Pop Shop, a retail store in Soho selling T-shirts, toys, posters, buttons and magnets bearing his images. Haring considered the shop to be an extension of his work and painted the entire interior of the store in an abstract black on white mural, creating a striking and unique retail environment. The shop was intended to allow people greater access to his work, which was now readily available on products at a low cost. The shop received criticism from many in the art world, however Haring remained committed to his desire to make his artwork available to as wide an audience as possible, and received strong support for his project from friends, fans and mentors including Andy Warhol.I am a great believer in diversity for artists of all kinds. What follows may be heresy to some of you. It is the opposite of what you have been told. For commercial photographers, it is also a matter of survival in a diminishing marketplace. If your broker recommended that you consolidate your portfolio into one stock, you would probably fire them. In what ways can you identify and place your work in new markets? How can you diversify your portfolios? Are there ways to diversify that allows you to maintain your vision? I am working on a presentation on diversity to deliver at Photo Plus this Fall.
(From Keith Haring's bio)
March 27, 2006
Song Titles
Idea Stimulator # 8
Song Titles
Under the Sheets
Song Titles
Under the Sheets
Fifties people had a silly ritual played with a juke box at our local diner. As we flipped through the selections we would add the words under the sheets to each title. Some of the combinations were funny and risqué. For example, I’ve got the Whole World in my Hand… Under the Sheets. Or Wake up Little Suzie… Under the Sheets.
Force fit some concepts together. In this case, 1950’s song titles. These titles represent The Hit Parade -- the ten best selling singles for each year along with the performer who made it a hit. Why not get an Oldies album and listen to the music as you do this exercise. Pick any other decade you wish. Find the lyrics on the Internet. http://www.oldielyrics.com/
For example, what if you were working on an advertising campaign for a new soft drink? Search for all the features and benefits. Let’s say refreshing is the principle marketing position. Combine the word refreshing with any of the following song titles from the of the fifties. How does each help you see refreshing in a different way? For example, what is an If I knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake refreshing image? What is a Little Things Mean A Lot refreshing image? Or Kiss of Fire. How about a fire breathing dragon using this new drink to put out the flames?
I invite you to conjure up ten ideas and post them on this blog.
1950
The Tennessee Waltz-- Patti Page
Goodnight, Irene-- Weavers with Gordon Jenkins
The Third Man Theme-- Anton Karas (also Guy Lombardo)
If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake-- Eileen Barton
Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy-- Red Foley
Mona Lisa-- Nat King Cole
All My Love-- Patti Page
I Can Dream, Can’t I?-- Andrews Sisters
The Thing-- Phil Harris
Harbor Lights-- Sammy Kaye
The Tennessee Waltz-- Patti Page
Goodnight, Irene-- Weavers with Gordon Jenkins
The Third Man Theme-- Anton Karas (also Guy Lombardo)
If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake-- Eileen Barton
Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy-- Red Foley
Mona Lisa-- Nat King Cole
All My Love-- Patti Page
I Can Dream, Can’t I?-- Andrews Sisters
The Thing-- Phil Harris
Harbor Lights-- Sammy Kaye
March 05, 2006
Listen Up!
Idea Stimulator # 7
Listen Up!
Listen Up!
For the next few days put a dozen index cards in your pocket. Capture verbatims wherever you go. Just write down what you hear without judgment. For example, when you were picking up your cleaning you may have heard, “I lost my receipt.” Or at the diner, “These are scrambled. I asked for over-lights!” The ordinary statements often work best. Sit down in a quiet place. Place the index cards on a table face down. Turn over the first card which might have been overheard at the supermarket check-out line, “This place is really filthy.” Now write down a minimum of ten ideas triggered by that thought. Don’t limit yourself to one location. Vary the ages of the people. For example, Imagine a pristine laboratory with workers in lab coats and masks with hands in protective gloves. One worker turns to the other and says, “This place is filthy.” Go to a K-Mart or Target. Listen. I heard, “The light in this place makes me crazy.” What is it about the light in these kinds of places? How can you duplicate this light on a set?
Illustrator/cartoonist Stan Mack made a career of collecting and visualizing verbatims. His comic strip entitled Real Life Funnies: Guarantee All Dialog is Reported Verbatim appeared in AdWeek and The Village Voice for decades. Check him out at www.stanmack.com.
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March 02, 2006
Express Your Anger
Idea Stimulator #6
Ticked Off!
Ticked Off!
Anger can be expressed in many ways. There's an abundance of terms for anger including expressions like "Ticked Off" which means being about to explode like a bomb. How many ways can you think of to express anger? How can you turn them into a series of images? Blow one's stack. Get under one's skin. Have a chip on your shoulder. Have a hemorrhage. Miffed. Pissed off. Throw a fit. Lose your cool.
For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
That is an interesting dichotomy.
What would it look like if you were angry all day?
Can you imagine a day without happiness?
Reflect on the most angry person you have ever met.
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
Buddha
What have you done or witnessed that was too hot to handle?
If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: 'I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.' When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods.
Epictetus (55 AD - 135 AD)
In one of my Heartstorming Circles, we wrote anger statements on index cards.
The cards were burned in an old coffee can.
As they burned each person read their anger statement out loud and proclaimed
that particular anger no longer serves them.
The ritual seemed to open more space for happiness.
Resentment is anger directed at others--at what they did or did not do.
Guilt is anger directed at ourselves--at what we did or did not do.
If our early lessons of acceptance were as successful as our early lessons of anger, how much happier we would all be.
Peter McWilliams, Life 101
In what ways can you take responsibility for the resentment and guilt that you carry?
If you kick a stone in anger, you'll hurt your own foot.
Korean Proverb
In what ways does anger serve you?
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February 23, 2006
Photo Swap
Timothy Pru's Photo Swap
This just in from Heartstormer EJ Carr. It is a very interesting concept and I invite readers to visit this site and to comment what you think of it.
From the Paul Kuhn Gallery website:
Paul Kuhn Gallery is pleased to present the inaugural PHOTO SWAP, opening February 18 at 2 p.m. Photo Swap is held in conjunction with "EXPOSURE" Calgary and Banff's annual photography festival held during February and March. Photo Swap, conceived by Timothy Prus of London, England, is a unique exhibition where anyone can be an exhibiting artist and collector at the same time. At minimum 1,000 photographs will be on display and everyone is invited to come in with their own photograph and exchange it for one of the works on the walls. The changing and evolving appearance of the walls will be recorded throughout the month long duration of the exhibition. At the conclusion of the event the traveling PHOTO SWAP will move on to a different venue in a different city with a fresh set of photographs looking for a new home. Other venues planned over the next two years include Prague, China, Photo London, Paris, Ulan Bator, Mexico City and the AGO in Toronto. Anyone and everyone is invited to come in and swap. Its fun, its easy and very engaging. Opening day is Saturday February 18th at 2 pm. The exhibition will be up until March 18, 2006
Established in 1983, the Paul Kuhn Gallery is located in a turn of the century concrete warehouse, south of Calgary's downtown core. The Paul Kuhn Gallery is 7,000 square feet and offers three floors of exhibition space. There is full service frame shop in the lower level.
The Paul Kuhn Gallery focuses primarily on contemporary Canadian art. The Gallery represents local, regional, and national Canadian artists from coast to coast. Additionally, international prints are available.
February 22, 2006
The Calf Path
Resistance to Change:
That's the way we've always done it.
Don't rock the boat.
If it ain't broke, don't break it.
It will never work.
It's not in the budget.
Yeah BUT!
That's the way we've always done it.
Don't rock the boat.
If it ain't broke, don't break it.
It will never work.
It's not in the budget.
Yeah BUT!
Ian Summers
2005
Digital Image
The Calf Path
One day thru the primeval wood
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail, all bent askew,
A crooked trail, as all calves do.
Since then 300 years have fled,
And I infer the calf is dead.
But still, he left behind his trail
And thereby hangs my mortal tale.
The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way.
And then, a wise bell weathered sheep
Pursued the trail, o'er~vale and steep,
And drew the flocks behind him too
As good bell weathers always do.
And from that day, o'er hill and glade
Thru those old woods, a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged, and turned, and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path,
But still they followed, do not laugh,
The first migrations of that calf.
And thru the winding woods they stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane
That bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street.
And this, before men were aware,
A city's crowed thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis.
And men, two centuries and a half
Trod the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a 100 thousand route
Followed the zig-zag calf about,
And o'er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A 100 thousand men were led
By one calf, near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way
And lost 100 years per day.
For this such reverence is lent
To well establish precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach
Were I ordained , and called to preach.
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out, and in, and forth, and back,
And still their devious course pursue
To keep the paths that others do.
They keep the paths a sacred groove
Along which all their lives they move.
But how the wise old wood gods laugh
Who saw that first primeval calf.
Ah, many things this tale might teach,
But I am not ordained to preach.
Sam Walter Foss
1858-1911
Let's face it, change is disturbing. The natural tendency is to stick with what we know, play it safe and gravitate towards the familiar. Overtly and covertly, we resist change! It is impossible to grow without change and risk. When we resist change and leave things just the way they have always been, we leave our existence totally to chance. And if that doesn't work, we often develop victim mentality. One day thru the primeval wood
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail, all bent askew,
A crooked trail, as all calves do.
Since then 300 years have fled,
And I infer the calf is dead.
But still, he left behind his trail
And thereby hangs my mortal tale.
The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way.
And then, a wise bell weathered sheep
Pursued the trail, o'er~vale and steep,
And drew the flocks behind him too
As good bell weathers always do.
And from that day, o'er hill and glade
Thru those old woods, a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged, and turned, and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path,
But still they followed, do not laugh,
The first migrations of that calf.
And thru the winding woods they stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane
That bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street.
And this, before men were aware,
A city's crowed thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis.
And men, two centuries and a half
Trod the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a 100 thousand route
Followed the zig-zag calf about,
And o'er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A 100 thousand men were led
By one calf, near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way
And lost 100 years per day.
For this such reverence is lent
To well establish precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach
Were I ordained , and called to preach.
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out, and in, and forth, and back,
And still their devious course pursue
To keep the paths that others do.
They keep the paths a sacred groove
Along which all their lives they move.
But how the wise old wood gods laugh
Who saw that first primeval calf.
Ah, many things this tale might teach,
But I am not ordained to preach.
Sam Walter Foss
1858-1911
The nasty little secret is that there is something emotionally satisfying
about portraying yourself as a victim.
Harold Kushner
about portraying yourself as a victim.
Harold Kushner
In my opinion, the world follows the calf's path and resists change. We hear the voices of judgment. We have forgotten why we exist. It is no longer enough to do the same thing or even to do the same things differently. We need to do different things. To do something new. To grow. To change. To take risks. To temporarily surrender security. If it is not broke, we need to break it! We need to learn ways to manifest love!
February 21, 2006
George Land: Grow or Die
Grow or Die
The Unifying Principle of Transformation
George Land
Back in the late sixties, when I was a young man, I became a partner in a visually oriented think tank called the Farsight Group. Farsight was mentored by partner George Land who has influenced my career in countless ways. It was George who got me interested in a life long study of the creative process. His teachings included a multi-disciplinary approach to creativity, a systems approach to creative problem solving and new ways to look at human behavior. Land taught that creating is a synthesizing process and that the more we have to synthesize the greater the chances are for coming up with an innovation and he invented a system to do just that. I have integrated some of this thinking into Heartstorming. It was George Land's book Grow or Die (Random House, 1973) that influenced me the most. This book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize 33 years ago. A few copies are available at Amazon. Some of you may remember that I used Grow or Die! as a motto several years ago. I believe that Land's theory of creative mutuality contains solutions for many of the world's problems. Read this book!
From the dust jacket:My article on Storytelling is a good example of how to use synthesizing to come up with an infinite number of innovative ideas.
In this immensely creative synthesis, George T. Lock Land presents a set of laws through which mankind cannot only control its destiny but also extend its freedom. GROW OR DIE -- that is nature's single mandate -- and that is the basis of this new theory of human beahvior and evolution. "Transformational Theory" is a redefinition of the process of growth to which every life and life form is subject. Impelled by the most basic and universal drive -- the drive to grow -- all biological, physical, chemical, psychological, and cultural processes are intrinsically equivalent. Cell biology, says Mr. Land, is the template for man's psychological drives and the key to understanding individual and social behavior of atoms, molecules, and cells. Creativity, mental illness, urban decay, self-sacrifice, colonialism, revolution, sadism, beauty, and human love all thus obey Nature's command to grow or perish.
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February 14, 2006
George Lois
How George Lois Turned Down an Opportunity
to Become a Matzo Salesman
A young photographer -- we'll call him Bob -- confirmed my suspicions after he read my rant on the Whiz Kids . Bob said, "George Lois? I know the name but I can't place him."
Want to find out how much fun advertising used to be? Read an interview in New York Magazine that came out when Lois' book $ellebrity was published in March 2003. You will learn, in Lois' own words, how he convinced four generations of matzo bakers that he truly believed in his creative work by threatening to leap from a three story building in Long Island City.
Ad BehaviorLegendary adman George Lois, whose new book, $ellebrity, is published this month, created some of the most memorable campaigns of the past 45 years, from “I want my Maypo” to “I want my MTV.” His Esquire covers—featuring Nixon in lipstick, Muhammad Ali as Saint Sebastian, and Andy Warhol drowning in a can of Campbell’s soup—inspired a generation of editors and designers. In the process, he helped midwife the birth—say it ain’t so, George—of modern celebrity culture. And along the way, no one had more fun. A talk with a modern master (Bronx accent not included).
By John Homans
One of my intentions for using a blog format is to make it easy for readers to open dialog with me and others. To stimulate participation I shall offer a question at the end of each entry. Please feel free to comment. Thanks.
When have you fought the client to see, understand, or believe in your ideas? What happened?
When have you fought the client to see, understand, or believe in your ideas? What happened?
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About Me
Ian Summers Easton, Pennsylvania, United States
I am a painter and career coach to creative artists. I have written 14 books including The Guide to Extraterrestrials and The Art of the Brothers Hildebrandt. I have had careers in education, publishing, advertising, poetry, and painting. I am currently represented by Oxygen 2 gallery in St. Paul MN where I will be exhibiting my First 42 American Presidents series. A concurrent show at The Banana Factory in Bethlehem PA will show my 9/11 monotypes. All images Copyright © 2005 Ian Summers - Portrait copyright by Nick Kelsh - Telephone 610-253-9418
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